The River at Tampa Bay Church — Attraction in Brandon

I visited a Sunday morning service to observe for one of my grad school classes. This was an experience unlike any I’d experienced before, and not in a good way. It lasted for 4 hours and I was not able to enter without providing identification and personal information. The large tent that they meet in has large fans that kept the temperature comfortable, and they provided water bottles for everyone that wanted one. The service was televised and seemed like a large production.

First, when I arrived, I parked and walked to the entrance where there were different tables set up. The signs near the tables read that I’d have to produce identification. I was directed to one of the tables by a staff member and was told that I needed to give them my driver’s license and contact information. I asked why they needed this information and they said that it was for the safety of Rodney, who had received threats during Covid. I asked them if I could enter without providing my info and they said I would not be allowed inside without providing the info they wanted. I reluctantly provided them with the info, but had I not needed to observe the service for a class of mine, I would have left. I was, then, given a colored wristband to indicate that this was my first visit.

Once I entered the large tent where the service would be held, I was escorted to another table where they requested more info from me. When I asked why they needed more info, I wasn’t given a straight answer, so I declined to provide anything more. I asked where I should go for the service and someone showed me where to go. I asked an usher if there was a seat towards the end of an aisle so that I could take notes for my class, but I was told that I could not choose where I sat, but had to sit where they put me. I was placed in the very middle of the space, between two people that I did not know. I don’t have any issues sitting with unfamiliar people, but the fact that I did not have a choice in my seating location made me uncomfortable. The service began and the music portion lasted about one hour. The songs were not theologically sound and were self-centered. There were many people singing and dancing around, which was not a bad thing, but when people are singing songs in a worship service, you’d expect that the lyrics be directed towards the Lord, or at least Biblical.

Once the music ended, Rodney came on stage and he gave an update on hurricane relief that they’ve been providing to the communities, which was really cool to see. He, then, went on to encourage people to keep donating to this relief, which was good.

Rodney’s message, which he did not get to until about 2 hours into the service, was very weak and not Biblical. He pulled from a text in the book of Micah and applied it to modern-day America. The message was not Biblical, but rather political, which was alarming, as there was no proper exegesis of the text. He roamed the aisles as he spoke and rambled for quite a bit. It seemed like he didn’t have any kind of notes and didn’t come prepared to actually preach on the text he chose.

At about 3 hours in, it was time for communion and offering, which was adequate. The messages were short and sweet and got right to the point they were trying to make. Once this ended, Rodney said that it was now time for God to heal people. He had mentioned that he promised the congregation a few weeks prior that he’d stick around and lay hands on people to heal them on this day, so that’s what he did. I didn’t stay for much longer, but when I left, there were people being prayed for, which was a good thing. However, I noticed some of the prayers seems to be commanding God to heal someone. There was even one woman that seemed to be twitching and squirming as a man had his hands on her abdomen and prayed for her. It was unsettling.

Overall, I appreciated their emphasis on praying for one another and helping communities in need, but those are about the only positive things I can say. I did not feel welcomed to come in without providing personal...

The Easter hunt at the River at Tampa Bay Church was terrible for my family. We attended an Easter hunt at The River at Tampa Bay Church at 3738 River International Dr, Tampa. My 6-year-old son was pushed and fell down, hurting his eyebrow and little fingers during the egg hunt. His left eyebrow was cut when he fell, and his fingers were stepped on by other children. No church staff noticed that my son fell down and cried until I entered the venue to get him. When I saw his face, I saw that his entire eyebrow was in blood and a bit of the skin peeled off. My heart was broken. When my son saw me, he was full of tears and cried sadly. I asked the church staff to give me clean water and Band-Aid. After waiting for more than ten minutes, I was given a piece of Band-Aid. I was surprised they don’t have first-aid kit ready for such a big event for CHILDREN. I heard that they said that 2,000 peoples participated in the event in that day I think my son’s incident was caused by the organizer's excessive display of golden eggs, which means big prizes like dirt bikes and 4-wheelers. Before the crowd entered the lot for 6-8 kids, the staff showed off and put two golden eggs at the entrance in front of my son and told the parents and children that the golden eggs are here. All the parents shouted and told their children the location of the two golden eggs. So, at the beginning, all the children rushed to the golden eggs like crazy because of the big prizes.

The staff walked us to the church hall and said they would help my child with the wound. I did not see the professional medical staff when we were there. The same person who led us to the hall then wiped the wound on my son’s eyebrow with a tissue and put another Band-Aid. I can hardly accept that such a large church does not even have a medical staff or office on site. But I thanked him for his help because he is only person who helped us with my son’s wound. There is no person in charge from the church to comfort us in the hall until I asked the church staff that we want to see his supervisor. Then came a guy, the supervisor of the staff member who were with us, He could care less for our son’s incident. He did not show any sympathy or say any comforting words or apologies. Instead, he asked us,” Do you want to solve the problem with money?” I was hurt by his words and he even smiled at us when he was talking to us. He said they were not responsible for my son’s incident and that children will be injured if they play football. The Easter egg hunt is not a competition. I brought my son for fun. I can't accept his attitude. I asked him if your son is injured like my son. Do you still have a smile on your face now?

Some additional words. When I first registered this event on Eventbrite online, and I saw no mention of a word saying that this is a church event. It only said that this is Florida’s #1 Easter egg hunt. It starts at 9:00 am in the morning. I thought it was a half-hour egg hunting activity. In reality , I went there at 9:00 am in the morning but the egg hunting did not start until 2：00pm. My family hungry around noon time. We didn’t know when they started the egg hunt and asked the staff. They said they have so specific time either and said it would begin after the church's service finished. we wanted to take our children out of the church’s kid care and planned to leave for lunch. When we were leaving, I saw people standing around in the field of the egg hunt. We said ok and joined the people and then the above incident happened on my son.

In fact, when I picked up the children, the staff here was also very strange. The parent of our four families asked a few times that we wanted to pick up our children. They all said that the children were eating pizza and playing game and they wanted us to wait. Later, when I took the son out, he said he eat nothing and did not play games.

I think this church is terrible, I will...

I got dropped off and there were tents everywhere. I was immediately instructed to hand my Drivers License over in order to attend the service which was very bizarre and invasive. After giving a person I do not even know my Drivers License, address, date of birth etc. the system did not take the info so I had to suffer through the invasive process again giving another stranger all of my personal information which took about 20 minutes. Never in my life, being ex-military, in several states or countries had this happened to me before. Then I was asked to sign whatever registration this was and while I signed the computer zeroed in on my face with a camera I assume taking pictures of me. I finally made it inside and then security made sure to sit beside me off and on throughout the service. There was a sense of paranoia in the atmosphere and I was trying to piece together what was happening. I am a business person, professional, God loving person of 40 plus years so no, I was not looking crazy, dressed alarming or any kind of a threat. As soon as the service started there were "Mercedes Benz" give-aways. I was like ok. Cool. What a blessing. But a little bizarre. It was like a moment out of the price is right. During the service the Pastor mentioned about 4 times that he was "protecting his people" and went on and on about how he would have to be shot in the front lawn doing so. It was quite bizarre and provoking instead of peace-making. Taunting. Prideful. He brought up the covid shut down situation which is now 4 years old. I was just there simply trying to go to church not hear about a possible stand down or wild west shoot out. Before the main preaching started a woman started preaching about tithing for what seemed like half hour. I first assumed this was the main message but it was not. I am a tither so I do not mind but the strong emphasis was very apparent. Now the worship and singing was quite beautiful. Lastly, it was hot and there was not one cloud or shade or breeze that day, so I sat in the front of the temple near a tree waiting for my ride with my kid and people kept asking me what I was doing there and why. I assumed the front of the temple parking lot area is a public place for the public but it was just an overall invasive experience. One guy came out and said welcome to FL as if he knew all of my information or his opps had informed him. I would not be surprised they behave this way because they have intelligence communities coming to pay them a visit based on what they would consider extremist remarks and behaviors which is then why a little ole visitor has to go through so much just to simply visit. Asking so many details about my personal info was not appropriate though I have nothing to hide. Though there were a lot of people that looked and seemed "normal" there were also a lot of people that seemed like they were not sound or healthy state of mind. Because of the overall experience I believe that true freedom was lacking as one should have walking in the light and in righteousness. I did not agree with how everything was handled during covid but I also do not agree in instigating or agitating authorities. The church is evidently run with levels of...